


give me forever

by somethingaboutwriting



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Pining, Post Episode 9, Self-Esteem Issues, Skateboarding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 15:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethingaboutwriting/pseuds/somethingaboutwriting
Summary: Langa didn’t understand, at first. Why that heart-racing feeling was suddenly gone, why even the most intense beef wasn’t exciting him. Why he was letting himself fall behind.Now he does. Because when he locked eyes with Reki, saw that unruly hair, heard the intensity of his voice, it all made so muchsense.Langa enjoys skateboarding, sure. He likes the thrill of it, the way it’s the same and new to his body all at once, the way the excitement of a race runs like electricity straight through him.But that isn’t why he does it. Not really.
Relationships: Hasegawa Langa/Kyan Reki
Comments: 15
Kudos: 185





	give me forever

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative title (AKA what this doc was called): Renga Make Up and/or Out Challenge
> 
> I cannot believe how quickly this skateboarding anime got its claws in me. The recent episodes hurt me and soooooooo here I am, offering humbly to you my version of them working things out, before it is all contradicted with the next episode. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (SPOILERS FOR EPISODE NINE!)

Langa grips the pieces of his board tightly. Slivers of broken wood dig into his palm, pinpricks of sharp pain, but he barely notices, too busy scanning the crowd for familiar scarlet hair. _Please, let him still be here. He wouldn’t have left. Not after that race. Not after everything._

He thought it was over. That Reki was always going to look at him with dull, cold eyes, answer him distracted and distant. That Langa managed to screw up the one real friendship he’d earned since everything changed. But the way Reki screamed his name when he turned that corner… surely now, things would be okay? Surely there was just a misunderstanding?

Surely he felt it too?

Langa didn’t understand, at first. Why that heart-racing feeling was suddenly gone, why even the most intense beef wasn’t exciting him. Why he was letting himself fall behind.

Now he does. Because when he locked eyes with Reki, saw that unruly hair, heard the intensity of his voice, it all made so much _sense_. Langa enjoys skateboarding, sure. He likes the thrill of it, the way it’s the same and new to his body all at once, the way the excitement of a race runs like electricity straight through him. 

But that isn’t why he does it. Not _really._

If he can just keep this burgeoning hope under control, and follow his mom’s advice, and _find_ him— maybe everything will be okay again.

There’s a blur of faces everywhere, dozens of people congratulating him, patting him on the back, asking if he thinks he can beat Adam. None of them are Reki.

Langa can’t find Reki anywhere.

And with every passing moment, the little bud of hope begins to wilt. He doesn’t want to do it, doesn’t want to give in, but eventually, Langa has to know. He approaches one of the guards at the gate.

“Did a boy leave recently?” he asks.

The guard sizes him up. “Red hair, baggy sweater?” Langa nods, heart sinking. “A few minutes ago, yeah.”

Langa turns to leave when the guard reaches into his pocket. 

“He left this with me. Ya want it?”

Between his fingers is, unmistakably, an S badge. 

There’s a ringing in Langa’s ears. Then the sound of his board clattering to the pavement. Why would Reki do that? What was he thinking? He loves skating more than anything, there’s no way he would give it up, no way he would go this far just to— what, avoid Langa? Did breaking the promise hurt him that much?

Is he that desperate not to be around Langa anymore?

“You okay, kid?” the guard says. 

“Yes,” Langa whispers. He reaches out, hesitates, then takes the badge from his hands. A hollow feeling spreads in his chest. “Thank you.”

He doesn’t try to find Reki again.

*****

Langa’s mom notices his mood as soon as he walks through the door, because of course she does. She’s drinking tea at the dinner table when he arrives, asks him if he had a good night, and he tells her it was fine. Something in his face must give him away, though, because she’s knocking quietly at his door a few minutes later.

He’s sitting on the floor, head leaning against his mattress, staring at the splintered face of a cartoon yeti where he let the board fall in the corner of his room.

“What,” he says. It comes out hoarse. She lets herself in, and when she spots him, her eyes soften.

Now that they live in Japan, his mom rarely speaks English. Says it’s better that they both practice their Japanese.

She speaks in English now. 

“Sweetheart, what happened?”

That’s all it takes for tears to start to fall. Langa squeezes his knees into his chest as he feels them streak hot down his cheeks. His mom rushes to kneel beside him immediately, gathers him up in her arms, strokes the back of his head soothingly. He feels the taped-together parts of him that have been fragile since Reki first brushed him off come apart. He lets himself shake.

“I messed it up, Mom,” he says into her shoulder, also in English. “I messed it up so bad, and I don’t think I can fix it.”

“Shhhhh.” She smooths his hair down, rocking him ever so slightly. “It’ll work out, you’ll see.”

But Langa knows better. No matter what he thought he saw in Reki’s face on that track, he was wrong; Reki doesn’t want to be around him anymore. Doesn’t want to be known as the guy who hangs out with Snow. Langa got so caught up in the competition, in the challenge of it all, that he didn’t realize why he cared about skating in the first place. And he hurt Reki in the process. He broke his promise.

He shouldn’t be surprised, Langa supposes. Reki was pulling back for a long time. It’s his own fault for ignoring the signs.

Langa was so goddamn busy being in love with skating—with _Reki_ —that he didn’t even notice when Reki stopped being his friend.

*****

Langa doesn’t go to school the next day. His mom shoots him furtive, worried glances, and makes him hot soup, and Langa stays in bed and tries to stare only at the ceiling but can’t stop looking at his broken skateboard. 

*****

He has to go eventually, of course, if only to stop feeling his mother’s eyes on him all the time. Better to rip the bandaid off than keep wallowing in his bedroom for days on end. Not like seeing Reki again will be any easier if he puts it off.

Langa gets to school early in the morning, before class. There’s a girl studying, one who sits near the front, and he interrupts her as she highlights something in her notebook. Langa makes something up about his eyesight, and how he thinks he’ll need glasses soon, and would she mind switching with him, he’d be so appreciative. 

She’s known in their class for being a nice girl, so she agrees straight away. Even scolds him for not saying anything sooner. She’s pretty— with a similar complexion to that girl on the boat, if Langa thinks about it. Which he tries not to. 

Reki will like her.

When the bell rings, Langa seizes his courage and walks to Reki’s desk. He’s staring out the window with his chin propped up on his hand, doodling with the other absentmindedly. The sight sends a pang of longing through him. The sound of Langa’s footsteps must alert Reki, because he startles and turns to make eye contact, and then an almost panicked expression crosses his face. 

“Langa—”

“Here,” Langa says. He drops Reki’s S badge onto his notes. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. But you shouldn’t give it up again.”

Langa’s impressed he managed to keep his voice even. He grips the strap of his bag tightly, and Reki’s mouth opens and closes in shock, like he’s about to say something, and then the girl passes behind Langa and sets her stuff down on the desk, smiling at them both. 

Langa manages a small smile back, then turns on his heel to the empty desk she left behind. Completely unable to look at Reki anymore.

Langa keeps his eyes forward the whole lesson. He doesn’t think about Reki’s laugh, or the way he grins as he sails through an ollie, or the way his hands move as he sands a board down. He doesn’t think about anything at all.

*****

On Friday, the next night of the tournament, Langa’s phone blows up with messages. From Joe, from Shadow, and especially from Miya, who he was apparently supposed to skate against.

There’s no point in it without Reki.

Besides— he’s already done this before. Giving up this time is just as simple as before, with snowboarding. The sports glide away from him like leaves on a stream when he lets them go, carried swiftly around the bend and out of sight, now that the people who anchored him to them are gone.

He sets his phone to silent, watches a movie, and resists the pull of his eyes to the corner of his bedroom. 

*****

Saturday morning, there’s a knock at the door to Langa’s apartment. He doesn’t pay it much attention— probably his mom was expecting company and forgot to tell him. He frowns at his math homework, restarts an equation, lets his head fall back against the back of his desk chair in frustration.

Then he hears it. A voice he’d recognize anywhere, talking to his _mom, in his apartment, right now_ — 

Langa has just enough time to jerk his head up in disbelief before his bedroom door is slammed open by an infuriated-looking Reki. Langa stands up immediately, taking an instinctive step back.

“What the hell are you thinking?!” Reki says. “Do you have any idea how pissed Miya is? Why would you skip the tournament?!”

From the living room, Langa’s mom calls out in a shaky voice that she’s going to do some errands. There’s a jangling of keys as she makes a rapid exit. Langa wishes he could do the same.

“What are you doing here?” Langa asks. He presses his thumb into his opposite palm, as if that will stop the anxious pounding of his heart.

Reki’s eyes have travelled past him, though, and are locked on something on the floor. “Your board is broken,” he says, surprised.

“Oh, yeah,” Langa says, seizing onto the excuse, “so- so I couldn’t. Race.”

But Reki shakes his head. “That’s stupid. Why wouldn’t you just get a new one? Oka could have found something similar—”

“I don’t want a new board,” Langa interrupts. It comes out more defensive than he intended.

“So, what, you’re not going to skate anymore?” Reki says, an edge to his tone now. “You’re gonna take all your talent, and _waste it_ , like you almost did against Joe—”

“I don’t _care_ about _skating!_ ” All the hurt and rejection is boiling up and out of him, and Langa’s powerless to stop it. “Besides, you’re one to talk— you gave up your badge, you left S!”

Reki looks flabbergasted. “You love skating! You’re a freaking genius at it!”

“None of it matters if you’re not there,” Langa says, then mentally bashes himself over the head as Reki’s eyes go wide as saucers. What is he thinking, saying things like that? “Look, I know I hurt you, but I won’t go to S anymore, so you don’t have to worry about me being there, and you can skate again—”

“I want to skate with you!” Reki shouts. Then he flushes as red as his hair. Langa stares at him. The statement contradicts… pretty much everything he’s done for the past few weeks.

“You said—” Langa has to catch himself, has to swallow to even out his voice— “you said we weren’t a good match anymore.”

Reki looks like he’s about to cry, and it makes a maw of guilt open up in Langa’s stomach. Reki ducks his head. “I said all that stuff because I’m _not_ a genius. I’ve loved skateboarding for years, and I can’t— I can’t do the things you do. That any of you do. No matter how hard I try, I can’t reach as far as you, I can’t jump as high, and I never will. I don’t know why you would wanna skate with someone like that.”

For a moment, there’s only a deep ache as Langa looks at the amazing boy in front of him and realizes what the _hell_ has been going on in his head lately, and as he feels just as strongly that Reki is so, so wrong. But beneath it is a light, golden feeling. One that sings about how Reki doesn’t hate him. How he wants to skate with him. How maybe things aren’t too broken after all. 

“Reki,” Langa says. He puts the back of his fist to Reki’s chest. “I never would have started skating without you. I couldn’t even stand on a board before you helped me! All the tricks I do, I can only do because you customized my board, and I only get excited about racing when you’re excited about it, too. I only want to skate if you’re with me. I want to watch videos of cool stunts with you, and eat lunch with you, and look at the stupid doodles you sneak onto my notes, and— and I don’t know why you don’t see how fun, and smart, and _cool_ you are, but I—”

Reki kisses him.

Then pulls back immediately, face somehow even redder, and starts babbling apologies. “Sorry! Sorry, I shouldn’t have, I got caught up, oh god, I’m sorry—”

Langa squishes Reki’s face between his palms, screws his eyes shut and kisses him again, mid-sorry. Reki freezes for just a second, and then— knots his hands in Langa’s shirt, and he must feel how hard Langa’s heart is beating, and Langa doesn’t even care.

That gold feeling is everywhere now, turned up to a hundred, bright through the tips of Langa’s fingers and toes, right up to the top of his head. Reki hums against his lips, and oh _god_ , it’s so nice. 

“I really like you,” Langa whispers when they separate. He rests his forehead against Reki’s, and Reki laughs shakily.

“I guess that means you’ll have to convince Akari to change seats again.”

Langa laughs too, then. “I’ll just tell her my eyes were fine after all.”

Reki hits him in the arm. “Is that what you said? That’s so mean. But she was annoying, she kept telling me to shush when I was humming, and didn’t like me tapping my pencil against the desk, so maybe she deserves it.” Then he pauses, before covering one of Langa’s hands, still on his cheek, with his own. “And I like you too, y’know?”

There’s bright, bright light, all through Langa’s body. He can’t help but kiss Reki one more time. Softly.

“C’mon,” Reki says finally, after, tugging Langa by the hand. “Lemme see what you did to my beautiful Reki-L2S!” 

Reki scoops up the pieces in his arms, and they run down to DOPE SKETCH, where Reki takes over the back room and gets to work, leaving Langa to watch in awe, as usual.

When it’s done, Reki presses it into Langa’s chest with a determined expression. “Now you can win the tournament with it. There’s no way Adam won’t let you back in, he’s like, crazy obsessed with you.” 

Langa hesitates. “But you’ll still skate with me?”

“Yeah,” Reki says, smile blinding. “Yeah, I will.”

*****

(It’s only after they kiss again that Langa notices.

_“Why did you add hearts around the yeti?!”_

“It’s made with love!!” Reki exclaims, and he laughs and laughs and laughs.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and supporting my red/blue gay regression! 
> 
> Comments mean the world :)


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